Major to speak at black history event

MOULTRIE -- Sylvia Emerson Lee, a retired major with the United States Marine Corps, will speak today at Stringfellow Elementary School as part of the school's Black History Month program. The event begins at 1 p.m. and is sponsored by the Stringfellow Gentlemen's Club and Stringfellow Principal Barbara Stewart.

Lee retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in September 2002 after serving for 20 years. During that time, she served tours at Camp Courtney and Camp Butler in Okinawa, Japan, Camp Elmore in Norfolk, Va., the 2nd Marine Division and 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and the Marine Corps headquarters in Arlington and Quantico, Va. She retired from the Marine Corps while serving in the Logistics Command at the Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) in Albany.

Lee is a native of Savannah and graduated from Savannah State College in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. She was awarded a commission as a second lieutenant with the Marine Corps following graduation. She served as the Marine Corps liaison for the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), as the corps' representative to the Department of Defense, on the Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Committee (PDTATAC), and as the training and education officer in Okinawa, Japan, during her career.

She is married to Col. B. George Lee, the Marine Corps Chief of Staff at MCLB, and they have two sons, Bryan, 12, and Joshua, 9.

The public is invited to attend Lee's presentation. There is no charge to attend the event.